Flattening End Grain with a Router

My favorite woodworking projects are clocks—big ones or little ones. If it ticks, I’ll make it. My latest venture provided me with the challenge of flattening the face of some log sections that I wanted to make into clocks. Belt sanding was too slow and using a thickness planer is unsafe. In the planer, a log section, which is end grain, can break apart and shoot out at you, with results that are better imagined than experienced. I devised this simple routing jig. I attached a sled to the bottom of my router that rides on the two side rails. If the log section rocks because it is uneven, add a shim until it’s steady. When one side is done, flip it over and do the other. I do a final sanding on the surfaces with an orbital sander.

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